New Ferrari CEO calls Marchionne’s targets ‘aspirational’

Shares fell almost 12 per cent after Louis Camilleri held his first call with analysts

During a conference call with analysts, Louis Camilleri, the recently-appointed CEO of Ferrari, has repeatedly called Sergio Marchionne’s target of doubling the company’s profit by 2022 as “aspirational”.

“Both Sergio and I had the same ambitions,” Camilleri told Bloomberg and analysts on the call, but cautioned the former Ferrari chief’s goal carried “risks and opportunities”.

Ferrari has confirmed more details on how it plans to double profits to €2 billion ($3.2 billion) by 2022 will be provided during investor summit, which begins on September 17, European time.

Camilleri has been CEO of Ferrari for around two weeks. He was appointed to the role after Exor, the holding company for the Agnelli and Elkann families, learned that Sergio Marchionne was incapacitated due to complications arising from surgery.

Mike Manley, the head of the RAM and Jeep brands, was appointed CEO of Fiat Chrysler (FCA). With Marchionne planning to step down from his post as FCA CEO in 2019, succession planning was already at an advanced stage.

Marchionne was scheduled to remain as head of Ferrari for a further five years. Because of this, it’s understood no handover preparations had been started prior to Marchionne’s passing.

Although Ferrari’s shares recorded their biggest one day fall since the 10 per cent of the automaker was floated on the New York stock exchange, they have since recovered some ground.